Classified information in Russia

In the Russian Federation, a state secret (Russian: Государственная тайна), according to the definition adopted in the Official Secrets Act of the Russian Federation, is information protected by the state on its military, foreign policy, economic, intelligence, counterintelligence, operational and investigative and other activities, dissemination of which could harm state security.

Legislation of the Russian Federation on State Secrets was based on the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Federal Law "On Security" and "On State Secrets". The list of information constituting state secrets shall be determined by federal law "On State Secrets" (Section II), under which inter-ministerial Commission for the Protection of State Secrets generates a list of information classified as state secrets.

Public authorities, whose leaders have the authority to designate information as state secrets, develop, within their competence, detailed lists of information to be classified. Guided by these lists, originators determine the degree of secrecy of information, establish the secrecy of documents developed by them (carriers) and their restrictive measures.

Under the law "On State Secrets" it is forbidden to designate as state secrets and classify information:

For most of the 20th century, classification in Russia included topographic maps that are fully unclassified in most other countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, maps of scale 1:100,000 and less were declassified, but larger scale maps were still considered a state secret. This caused a number of problems for GIS and navigation software makers, and many foreign tourists relied on war time maps prepared by the Germans (e.g. Caucasus area). Around 2010, the declassification process for maps of larger scale (up to 1:50,000) was started.

Levels of secrecy of documents in the USSR, and still in Russian Federation, from maximum to minimum are:

Limited access (potentially sensitive), but unclassified information

ДСП do not belong to the state secret.

Classified documents with special contents are marked:

The degree of secrecy of information constituting state secrets, is consistent severity of damage, which may be caused by the public spread said information. Using secrecy levels for classifying information that is not classified as state secrets is not allowed.

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